1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a system and method for dynamically controlling frequency and amplitude settings of an ultrasonic magnetostrictive dental scaler. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a system and method for utilizing digital filter control loops to individually adjust amplitude and frequency of the vibrations.
2. Background of Related Art
Ultrasonic dental scalers are generally used to clean various types of build up from teeth. Dental scalers include a control circuit, a handpiece having an ultrasonic transducer, an energizing coil and a tool tip. In particular, the energizing coil actuates the transducer which then produces vibrational motion. The vibrational motion is then transformed into lateral motion of the dental scaler tool tip, which is typically elliptical. Vibration of the tool tip is controlled and, if required, adjusted during operation to tune the frequency and amplitude to desired operational frequency and amplitude. As operational conditions change, such as temperature, density of the material being removed, etc., operational frequency and amplitude change accordingly. Manual tuning of the dental scaler is inconvenient, therefore, automatic frequency and amplitude tuning circuits have been developed. More specifically, automatic tuning circuits utilizing feedback coils have been proposed. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,451,161 and 6,241,520. However, these circuits suffer from a number of mechanical disadvantages (e.g., interconnection of additional wires, fragile wirings, placement of controls, etc.) and electronic disadvantages (e.g., inaccurate signal processing, interference, etc.). Therefore there is a need for an ultrasonic magnetostrictive dental scaler with improved control circuitry.